Sportscope: Miami-oregon? Dream On

According to the Chicago Tribune's Rick Morrissey, we'll all have to wonder what would have happened if the polls -- instead of the BCS -- had determined the national championship game participants.

"The Rose Bowl was supposed to be the national championship game of the bowl championship series, but it was reduced to a game of hide-and-seek.

"The winner was forced to hide behind a sham of a system, and Oregon was left to seek justice. If there were any, the second-best team in the Big 12's North Division wouldn't have been anywhere near the national-title game ...

"The two most dominant teams in college football didn't get a chance to play each other. Miami will always have Thursday night. Oregon will have its daydreams."

EVEN MORE BCS

From Mike Bianchi in the Orlando Sentinel: "There were 93,781 fans at the Rose Bowl on Thursday, and it seemed like there were 900,000 wearing Nebraska red. If this were a movie, it would have been called 'The Tomato That Ate Pasadena.'

"Huskers fans didn't just buy their allotment of 21,000 tickets; they gobbled them down like a threshing machine inhales cornstalks. And they begged for more and more and more."

Ex-Daily Press columnist Tom Knott, in the Washington Times: "[Bulls general manager Jerry] Krause, who leads the NBA in chins, is said to have hastened the breakup of the championship Bulls. His rush to fix perfection has resulted in a massive dose of irrelevance for the franchise. ... They only have a statue of Jordan at the United Center in Chicago. Thanks to Krause, Washington has the real thing, all 38 years old of him."

TRASHY SITUATION?

Hearing the trash talk between Philadelphia and Tampa Bay players Sunday night might have been interesting.

"I'm gonna whip your blankety-blank ... next week, when it really matters. Tonight, you can have it."

AND FINALLY

If nothing else, the Washington Redskins have completed a dramatic rise to mediocrity.